The Phantom of the Opera at MBS MasterCard Theatres

My love for musicals began when I was a teenager, with the Phantom of the Opera.

I remember being utterly enthralled with the famous lake scene (you have to watch it if you don’t know what I’m talking about!), the soaring high notes, the beautiful duets that dipped and rose together with the live orchestra in haunting harmony. The final scene.. It’s so heart-wrenching and poignant with despair and loss, sorrow and despondency. So glad that I got to watch this a second time in my life, and even had an opportunity to meet and speak to the creative team and cast in person!

If you have never experienced the magic of the Phantom of the Opera before, you are missing out on an incredible show!

Melissa and I attended the media call together (our first time!) and got first dibs on a sneak preview of the show, as well as getting to speak to the creative team and cast in person! It was a wonderful privilege and experience, and we had a really insightful session!

While the rest of the media were busy snapping pictures of the performances and speeches… Yup, here we are taking selcas 😀 #shamelessbloggers

That’s not to say we didn’t take any photos of the show! I don’t want to spoil the show for you if you’ll be watching it, but here are a few shots of my favourite scenes! The die-hard Phantom fans will certainly recognise every scene!

We listened in while Brad Little (The Phantom), Claire Lyon (Christine Daae) and Anthony Downing (Raoul) were being interviewed by various media personnel, and it was a really interesting session!

Anthony Downing, who plays Raoul, Christine’s passionate lover.

Beautiful Claire Lyon who plays Christine, she did an incredible job!

Here’s some Phantom trivia for you:

*22 containers were shipped into Singapore for The Phantom of the Opera: that’s how huge the production is!

*A large number of the orchestra musicians you hear performing the beautiful music of the Phantom are all our very own local talents, who auditioned for the parts when the creative team flew in a few months ago! I’m so proud of our local musicians! 🙂

*Brad Little (who plays the Phantom) actually used to play Raoul on Broadway, but has starred in over 2200 performances in the travelling tour of The Phantom of the Opera as the Phantom, and this is his second time playing the Phantom in Singapore!

*The musical is based on a novel “Le Fantome De L’Opera” written by Gaston Leroux in 1909, and was popularised by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1986, that makes the Phantom over a century old! (I actually read the novel a long time ago after watching the musical in 2007, and I re-read it again a few days ago!)

*Claire Lyon is one of the few Christines to be involved in both The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies (the sequel to Phantom), but ironically, she first performed the role of Christine in Love Never Dies, and not Phantom.

You can find tonnes more of Phanton trivia on fan sites all over the internet, so I’m not gonna bore you out if you haven’t yet been inducted into the cult of the Phantom! *cue evil laughter*

***

After the media call in the afternoon, Mel and I popped over to City Plaza for lunch: my favourite ban mian!! (Walao, ever since then, I’ve been having MAJOR ban mian cravings =__=) And then we went back home to freshen up, before heading back to the MasterCard Theatres in the evening again for the Gala Show of The Phantom of the Opera!

Mel and I both changed into long dresses for the evening: the theme was “Black Tie” and what better chance to dress up than the gala opening of such a celebrated musical?

I was very excited because it was YZ’s first time watching The Phantom of the Opera, he had other plans that evening initially but I wheedled and persuaded him to come watch the musical with me, and I’m so glad I did because he enjoyed it thoroughly as well!

The show was spectacular, even better than what I remembered, honestly! And if you are fond of the Phantom and its music, trust me, you will definitely enjoy the brilliance of the live singing and music, my skin was literally prickling with goosebumps the moment the opening interlude started!

I loved the huge singing acts and humour in the show, they brought liveliness and comic relief to set off the intimate and quieter scenes with stanza after stanza of heartfelt singing. Claire Lyon really shone as Christine, and I was blown away with her voice and how well she portrayed the part.

The chemistry between the Phantom and Christine was simply amazing as well, I was almost brought to tears by the raw emotions of the Phantom, and how he turned from the fear-evoking antagonist to a broken, desolate creature who only longs to be loved.. :'( The final scene is just so heartbreaking! I was glued to the edge of my seat, rapt with attention, as the scene unfolded.

Apart from the wonderful storytelling and music, the show itself is so visually stunning! You’d find yourself sucked right into the world of the Opera Populaire and the Phantom, with the elaborate attention to detail in the props, costumes and stage settings! It was a feast for all of my senses!

My words are rather inadequate, so please, watch it for yourself instead!

With some other gorgeous ladies, Claire, Sophie and Mel at the After Party!

Fabulous canapes after the great show, and we got to mingle with the cast too!

Listening to the 25th Anniversary OST of Phantom as I’m writing this and the music is so timeless and wonderful. I love it! My family is so annoyed by my non-stop singing of the Phantom songs. They are all like, 你干嘛，鬼叫啊?! but I don’t care!

Another week beckons, so I wish everyone a blessed week ahead!
Thank you for reading this space 🙂

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Welcome to my blog! My name is Yina Goh, and I own online boutique The Velvet Dolls. I'm passionate about travel, fashion, food, beauty and music. I love photography and taking photos to document my everyday!